Agenda - 02-01-1988 - Laserfiche WebLink

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160 ORANGE COUNTY MASTER RECREATION & PARKS PLAN The following text is recommended to be substituted for all text appearing in the draft Master Recreation and Parks Plan, Chapter 6, County-Wide Proposals and Recommendations, Greenways section (pages 6-7 through 6-9) . -Greenways A final county-wide recommendation is for the county to develop a greenway system, composed of recreational trails. The system is to be. based upon guidelines provided to the county by the Triangle Land Conservancy and greenways plans included in the Joint Planning Area Land Use Plan adopted October 1986. It is also proposed that the county coordinate its greenway plans with the Towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro on a local level, and the Triangle J Planning Area on a regional level, to assure proper connections with other systems in the area. Orange County is also within the path of the "Mountain to the Sea" trail being developed through the State of North Carolina. It would be beneficial to connect with this trail system where possible to become a member of a unique and historic recreational activity. The final recommendation on the development of a greenway system is that it be planned compatibly with other systems as recommended by the President's Commission on American Outdoors (PCAO) which emphasizes the creation of a "National Greenway Network." Areas designated on the individual township maps show the areasirecommended for recreational trails (graphically depicted by a dot pattern and labeled RT) which are accessible to the public and managed by the County, and are developed with walkways or trails. Recreational Trails Recreational trails in more urbanized areas or accessible to relatively large numbers of people, or which connect two or more identified significant areas should take the form of corridors of land with a paved or prepared walkway (these trails can provide walking connections and opportunities for bicyclists and joggers) or with well-marked and maintained unpaved trails. These corridors should be a minimum of sixty feet (60' ) wide or the width of the 100 year floodplain whichever is more, providing the user with the impression of being away from urban development. The recreation trails will require operational management such as litter and security patrol with appropriate vehicular restrictions endorsed. For recreational trails for which county ownership may not be necessary or appropriate, conservation easements and mutual convenants between the landowner and the county or another land management group like the Triangle Land Conservancy, may be useful. The above-described system would be developed using the methods for acquisition and development described in the Plan's section entitled the same, beginning on page 7-6, and should provide a special public-private partnership to ensure that the uniqueness of Orange County is preserved for future generations.